Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductive layers of material over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon. Many integrated circuits are typically manufactured on a single semiconductor wafer, and individual dies on the wafer are singulated by sawing between the integrated circuits along a scribe line.
In the fabrication of semiconductor devices, the size of semiconductor devices has been continuously reduced in order to increase device density. Accordingly, a multi-layered interconnect structure is provided. The interconnect structure includes a conductive feature embedded in a dielectric material with a low-k (ELK) dielectric constant.
Although existing interconnect structures with low-k dielectric layers have been generally adequate for their intended purpose, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects.